The Hilo Hawaiian Hotel offers many benefits for weddings. They offer many accommodations from a ceremony site, two rooms to hold a reception, lots of parking, areas near by for wedding photos, food, and rooms for family and friends. For the wedding of the brand new Mr & Mrs. Ragasa, the reception took place in the Mala Ikena. A room that holds meetings more often than weddings, but it provides a nice intimate setting for a reception.



The Mala Ikena room is the room next to the buffet. This room is great for a small wedding intimate wedding. That’s exactly the feel that Jon and Brenda was looking for. It was a nice reception with family and friends having easy access to each other for socializing and catching up. Dinner was trips to the buffet which also comes with free drinks for the night. I think this is fantastic idea for a wedding. Not only are your guests able to eat as much as they want including desserts, but with the unlimited drinks you basically have an open bar. For the lighting set up we decided to set up lighting around the perimeter of the room in the wedding colors of light blue and white. This room works well with uplighting because it is small in size with low ceiling. This allows the uplighting to reflect the lighting better off of the walls and ceiling.



With this set up there is no need for the top lights to be on. It’s nice to find rooms at venue that not many people think of holding weddings in often. For a nice small wedding on the East side of the island consider the Mala Ikena Room at the Hilo Hawaiian Hotel. With it’s great accommodations it the perfect venue for an intimate wedding. Congratulations to the newly married Jon & Brenda Ragasa! Two great people with many years of happiness to come.


- Photo by Christopher Parayno

For more info on weddings at Hilo Hawaiian Hotel call Dallas Ide (808) 935-9361or visit them at visit them online at http://www.castleresorts.com/Home/accommodations/hilo-Hawaiian-hotel. The cake for this wedding was made by Chef Coen of Hilo Bake Company. Visit them online at www.hilobakecompany.com. For more info on Eclipse Effect Entertainment services, please call (808) 936-3552 or email jase@eclipseeffect.com.

- Blog written by Jase Takeya. jase@eclipseeffect.com

Tags: Hilo Hawaiian Hotel, Banyan Drive, Hilo Weddings, Hawaii Wedding, Bigisland wedding, Wedding reception, Mala Ikena Room

The Wainaku Center is one of the most grand looking venues of the East side of the island. This former C. Brewer building that has been fixed up and restored to be a great location for a wedding. It has a look that rivals any venue in Waikoloa and provides a great ocean view as well as a fancy looking building. If you want a venue that has an elegant look to it, but don’t want to travel to Waikoloa due to the cost or convenience of your guests, this is the perfect wedding venue for you.



Recently we got to add to the beauty of the Wainaku Center. We provided lighting services for the brand new Mr. & Mrs. Filipovich. It was a day that started with an amazing wedding ceremony complete with a flower pedal drop from a helicopter. That is a sight to see! From there it was a reception where there was live acoustic music then dancing. We had a lot of fun teaming up with Pepe of CJ’s Sound for this wedding. The food was fantastic from Aloha Mondays. They are highly recommended. They use fresh ingredients grown here on the Big Island and have a creative menu.

Here is what we did for the lighting for the night. An original design we created in 2012 was to light up the whole exterior of the building and we have been refining the design since.



For this wedding we did lighting in teal as well as blue in the patio area to match the weddings ocean theme. We also did a palm tree pattern and white wash in the grass as well as string lighting under the tent. It was a design that really worked well for this wedding. Lighting is always a worthy addition to a wedding at this venue. The ocean view is a great back drop in the day time then the building becomes that great back drop at night. In all it’s always an elegant affair at the Wainaku Center. For more information on the Wainaku Center visit www.wainakuventures.com. Check out what delicious tasting Aloha Monday has this week by going to www.alohamondays.com. For more info on Eclipse Effect Entertainment services, please call (808) 936-3552 or email jase@eclipseeffect.com.

- Blog written by Jase Takeya. jase@eclipseeffect.com

Tags: Wainaku Center, Hilo Weddings, Aloha Mondays, CJ Sounds